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UN Women: Consultant - Domestic Violence Legislation

Thursday 26 July, 2012 - 11:18

UN Women

Please note: this opportunity closing date
has passed and may not be available any more.

Opportunity closing date:

Sunday, 5 August, 2012

UN Women is the UN organisation dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. UN Women works on several fronts towards ending violence against women and girls. This includes tackling its main root: gender inequality. Efforts are multiplied through advocacy campaigns and partnerships with governments, civil society and the UN system.

Initiatives range from working to establish legal frameworks and specify national actions, to supporting prevention at the grassroots level, including in conflict and post-conflict situations. UN Women has also supported data collection on violence against women, facilitating new learning on the issue. UN Women plays an active role in supporting the UN Secretary-General’s multi-year UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, launched in 2008. In Africa the regional component of the UNiTE campaign was launched in January 2010 which is subsequently known as the Africa UNiTE Campaign. In Southern Africa, a number of initiatives have been put in place using the Africa UNiTE Campaign as a platform to leverage ongoing efforts to respond and put an end to violence against women.

Objective of the consultancy

The UN Women Regional Office for Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands seeks the services of a Consultant with regional/international experience in gender sensitive law making and or international human rights law with a specific focus on gender based and domestic violence. This consultancy undertaking is centred within a wider project to enhance the capacity of national partners to advocate to develop laws on domestic violence in countries where they are not present.

The initial desk review research and consultations will enable the consultant to identify key gaps that impede the passage of domestic violence legislation in Seychelles, Swaziland and Lesotho. This will then inform the work that will be facilitated by the consultant to conduct a regional stakeholder consultation with key stakeholders in the three countries. To this end, the consultant will also review existing legislation and best practices from Domestic Violence legislation around the world that will enable the consultant to develop the prototype bills.

Specific tasks:

Desk Review for the development of a prototype Bill on Domestic Violence;

Convene Regional Stakeholder consultation on advocacy support to countries without Domestic Violence Bills and share prototype;

Provide capacity building for law makers on enactment of gender-sensitive laws.

Deliverables/Outputs

The following deliverables will be provided to UN Women SRO by the Consultant following the time frame scheduled for implementation and reporting under the contract:

A work plan (within one week of signing the contract);

An inception report outlining research methods and literature review (within two weeks of signing the contract included with the finalised approved work plan);

Draft Report on Research (within four weeks of signing the contract);

Draft Prototype Bill from Research conducted (within eight weeks of signing the contract);

Convening of the regional consultation with key national partners and women’s rights organisations (within 12 weeks of signing of contact);

Revised Draft Final Reports on Desktop review and regional consultation.

Methodology of the Consultancy

The Consultant will work under supervision of UN Women Regional Director for Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Islands and interact with other partners as prescribed in the TOR. S/he will work on a one-to-one basis with the UN Women technical officer responsible for ending Violence against Women.

The Consultant is expected to work proactively, showing excellent organisational skills and team working spirit as well as commitment to the achievement of results. Accordingly s/he is expected to:

Work closely and collaboratively with the e-VAW programme officer in implementing the scope of work and ensuring rigor in the findings and the analysis;

Ensure that participatory methodologies are undertaken to include both quantitative and qualitative data in the research findings and that these are appropriately reconciled;

Facilitate a regional capacity building exercise/ regional stakeholder dialogue for law makers, advocates, women’s rights activists in the three countries on gender sensitive law making;

Observe key best practices on domestic violence legislation from around the world to inform the draft prototype bill for Seychelles, Lesotho and Swaziland;

Observe United Nations core values and work from a gender and human rights based approach;

Observe international standards for applied policy research of this type including inputs for comparative and cross-regional analysis.

Profile and competences of candidates

CVs are welcomed from potential candidates fulfilling the following requirements:

Either a Master’s degree with five years of experience in International law specifically in international human rights law, gender sensitive law making or Bachelor of Laws with seven years of experience in the same field;

Strong technical knowledge and understanding on the gender dimensions of legal transformation and gender and human rights law;

Experience in legal development processes relating to gender and human rights particularly public policy would also be an asset including demonstrated working experience with government and civil society;

Knowledge/understanding of the inter-related international, regional and national frameworks on gender and development;

Good organisational and project management skills including partnership experience with a broad array of stakeholders on similar multi-sectoral research projects;

Track record of excellence in applied legal research particularly in areas of national and international policy relevance;

Demonstrated knowledge of the above issues in the context of the country focus is mandatory for this assignment;

Excellent communication in English. French will be an asset;

Commitment to gender equality and women’s rights and strong team working skills.

The consultancy shall be for the period of August-December 2012. The assignment will be conducted in Johannesburg- South Africa. Travel: The consultant is expected to travel whenever necessary;

Contract and remuneration:

A Special Service Agreement Contract will be issued in accordance with UN Women rules and regulations. Three payments will be made to the consultant; with the larger portion (50%) being made on completion of the tasks above including the convening of the regional consultation with key stakeholders and their subsequent approval by the SARO. The first payment of the twenty percent (25%) will be made upon submission and approval of the work-plan and inception report. The second payment of (25%) will be made upon the development of the prototype Domestic Violence Bill produced as well as the Desktop research on the situation of domestic violence in the three countries listed above. The consultant is expected to engage in regular meetings with UN Women focal point for ending Violence against Women to ensure swift execution of the project.

It should be understood that payments as ascribed above will only be made when deliverables have been reviewed and deemed acceptable to UN Women and research project partners.

As a first step, UN Women requests interested and qualified candidates to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) outlining relevant experience and expertise in the areas covered by the consultancy particularly in gender sensitive law making. EOIs should also include an indication of consultant(s) availability. All submissions will be considered by UN Women to be included in a consultant roster on Domestic Violence and or gender-sensitive law-making.

Disclaimer

The material arising from the consultancy shall be the property of UN Women and cannot be used without the express consent of UN Women.

Remarks:

This position was previously launched (26 June 2012 – 06 July 2012) as a “home based” consultancy. However SARO office requires for the consultant to be based in Johannesburg and for this reason the position is herein re-advertised.

This position only applies for “National personnel or others legally authorised to work in the South Africa“.

To apply, submit a CV, completed United Nations Personal History Form (P.11) and motivation letter to hr.southafrica@unwomen.org. Kindly quote the Reference – ‘Consultant to support Domestic Violence Legislation’ in the subject line of your application. We will not able to track your applications without the reference code provided.